LEIF GARRETT - GARRETT HAUNTED BY PARALYSED PAL

GARRETT HAUNTED BY PARALYSED PAL

Seventies pop sensation LEIF GARRETT is still haunted by the fact his teenage partying left a pal paralysed from the waist down. The US pin-up was speeding along a freeway with a group of stoner friends on the way to score more drugs when Garrett lost control of his car and careered down an embankment. The accident left his pal in a wheelchair and to this day Garrett muses what might have happened that night if he was clean and sober. Speaking candidly on an upcoming episode of psychologist DR KEITH ABLOW's self-titled US TV talk show, Garrett says, "A bunch of friends were together and we were partying... and we went to go meet someone to get some more stuff. "He (the friend) fell asleep in the front of my car. I reached over and the wheel turned a little bit and we clipped the back of another car and spun around and went down the side of an embankment. "Unfortunately, the gentleman who was with me, ROLAND, became paralysed from the waist down. That's been a heavy burden for a long time, still is - it's something I think about a lot." But the episode never turned Garrett away from drugs - far from it. Last year (05), the singer/actor pleaded guilty to cocaine possession charges and was placed on probation. He violated that probation at the end of 2005 and was arrested with heroin in his possession at the beginning of this year (06). He was sentenced to a live-in drug rehabilitation programme but walked out after just a few days. He was consequently sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years' probation in May (06).